How to Burn Music to CD’s on Your MacBook

Besides being a great audio player, iTunes is adept at creating CDs. iTunes makes recording songs to a CD on your MacBook as simple as a few clicks. Making the modern version of a compilation (mix) tape is easier than getting a kid to eat ice cream. iTunes lets you burn CDs in one of three formats:

Audio CD: This is the typical kind of commercial music CD that you buy at a store. Most typical music audio CDs store up to 800MB of data, which translates into about 80 minutes of music.

Data CD or DVD: A standard computer CD-ROM or DVD-ROM is recorded with the audio files. This kind of disc can’t be played in any standard audio CD player. Therefore, you can listen to these songs only by using iTunes (or another media player) on a Mac or PC.

MP3 CD: As does the ordinary computer CD-ROM, an MP3 CD holds MP3 files in data format. However, the files are arranged in such a way that they can be recognized by audio CD players that support the MP3 CD format (especially boom boxes, DVD players, personal CD players, and car stereos).

Because MP3 files are so much smaller than the digital audio tracks found on traditional audio CDs, you can fit as many as 160 typical four-minute songs on one disc. These discs can also be played on your MacBook via iTunes.

Keep in mind that MP3 CDs aren’t the same as the standard audio CDs that you buy, and you can’t play them in older audio CD players that don’t support the MP3 CD format. Rather, this is the kind of archival disc that you burn at home for your own collection, or for use in a CD/DVD player or car audio system that supports MP3 discs.

To begin the process, build a playlist (or select an existing playlist). If necessary, create a new playlist and add to it whatever songs you would like to have on the CD. With the songs in the correct order, right-click the playlist and choose Burn Playlist to Disc to commence the disc-burning process. Click the desired recording format (again, usually Audio CD) in the Burn Settings dialog that appears.

To save yourself from sonic shock, you should enable the Sound Check check box before you burn. iTunes adjusts the volume on all the songs on your audio CD so that they play at the same volume level.

Ready to go? Click Burn and load the blank disc. iTunes lets you know when the recording is complete.